Pneumatic playing attachment for musical instruments.



R. J. BENNETT.

PNEUMATIC PLAYING ATTACHMENT I-OB. MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 3, 1910.

Patented Aug. 18, 1914.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

THE AORRIS PETERS C0 PHoroL/rno, WASHINGTON. n. c.

R. J. BENNETT.

PNEUMATIC PLAYING ATTACHMENT FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

APPLIUATION rum) MAY 3, 1910.

1,107,574. Patented Aug. 18, 191i 4 SHEETS-SHEET 2,

In N 46 R. J. BENNETT.

PNEUMATIC PLAYING ATTACHMENT FOB MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

APPLICATION nun In a, 1910.

1,107,574, Patented Aug. 18, 1914.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

0,,- WALEMJZ R. J. BENNETT.

PNEUMATIC PLAYING ATTACHMENT FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

APPLICATION FILED an a, 1910.

1,107,574. Patented Aug. 18, 1914.

4 SHBET8-8HEET 4.

.lllllllll Illlv UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT J. BENNETT, 0F MOLINE, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO ARTISTA PIANO PLAYER COMPANY, OF MILAN, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

PNEUMATIC PLAYING ATTACHMENT FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 18, 1914.

Application filed May 3, 1910. Serial No. 559,183.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT J. BENNETT, a citizen of the United States, residing at l\Ioline-, in the county of Rock Island and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pneumatic Playin Attachments for Musical Instruments, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

This invention relates more particularly to that class of automatic playing attachments for musical instruments in which the mechanism fo1- automatically actuating the action of a piano or other instrument is mounted upon a support at the front of the instrument, usually above the key-board and in front of the strings or piano wires, and devices whereby the strings are tuned, in such a position as to preclude access to the tuning devices without removing the attachment.

The invention has for one of its objects to provide an improved and simple con struction of a device of this character which covers the tuning devices may be readily removed and temporarily supported during the tuning operation without entirely detaching the same from the instrument.

Another object of the invention is to provide improved and simple means whereby the hammer rest rail of a piano to which the playing attachment is connected may be readily controlled at the will of the operator by pneumatic means.

The invention consists in the construction, combination and arrangement of parts shown in the accompanying drawings illustrating an exemplification of the invention and particularly pointed out in the claim.

In the said drawings-Figure 1 is a general view of an upper part of a piano having this invention applied thereto, showing the same in front elevation. Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, showing the damper bar controlling valve. Fig. 3 is a plan view thereof. Fig. 4 is an enlarged front elevation of one end of the supporting board and parts associated therewith. Fig. 5 is a horizontal section on the line 55 of Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is a plan view of the supporting board on a smaller scale than Fig. 4;. Fig. 7 is a transverse section thereof on the line 7-7 of Fig. 1, showing plicity of these tubes.

one or more horizontal wind one of the supporting brackets for said board. Fig. 8 is a vertical section on the line 88 of Fig. 7. Fig. 9 is a horizontal section on the line 99 of Fig. 8. Fig. 10

is a. sectional view of a primary pneumatic -'0n the line 10-10 of Fig. 14. Fig. 11 is a :rear elevation thereof with the cap removed.

Fig. 12 is a view of the face of the primary pneumatic block in which the 'main ports are formed. Fig. 13 is an enlarged section of the primary pneumatic taken on the line 13-13 of Fig. 15. ,tion of the primary pneumatic and power pneumatic by which the damper bar is con- Fig. 14 is a vertical sectrolled, taken in the same plane as Fig. 13.

'Fig. 15 is an inner face view of the prigmary pneumatic and the supporting board with the power pneumatic removed. Fig. :16 is a transverse section of the damper bar showing its connection with the power pneumatic. pneumatic and its primary or controlling pneumatic, showing their relation to the ,main support.

whereby the portion of the attachment :of the musical instrument, such as the keys 1 of a piano, are capable of being operated by hand for playing the instrument independently of the automatic playing attachment, and the playing attachment is provided with as many power pneumatics as v there are keys 1, and each of these power pneumatics has a controlling pneumatic ordinarily known as the primary pneumatic, Zwhich in turn is under the control of the traveling music sheet or record, which is usually provided with Fig. 17 is a plan view of the power Ordinarily, in this art, the usual keys erforations or apertures adapted to register at proper peordinary practice there is a great multi- In the accompanying illustration, some of these pneumatics are indicated at 2, and some of the tubes connecting them with the tracker board 3 are indicated at 4. The pneumatics 2 are usually supported upon and connected with chests or trunks 5, which extend across the front of the piano above the keys 1, but the tracker board 3, the spool box 6 carrying the music sheet- 7, and motor indicated at 8 and all of the connections between the motor and the mechanism of the spool box are preferably supported at a higher elevation and preferably above the usual. hammer rest rail 9 of the piano, where they cover a considerable portion of the usual mechanism of the piano and preclude access to the pins or posts on which the wires are wound, and consequently, when it is desired to tune the piano, all these parts before referred to as being above the damper bar must be removed, although ordinarily it is not necessary to remove the wind chest 5 at all times when these other parts are removed. To detach all of the large number of tubes t from their connections with the pneumatics 2, or with the tracker board 3, however, would entail a great expenditure of time and cause confusion. In order, therefore, that these parts above the damper bar may be removed from in front of the wire pins or posts, or other mechanism which they obstruct, when it is desired. to tune the piano, and may be temporarily supported during the tuning operation, so that the tubes 4; need not be detached, all of such parts are mounted upon a common support 10 in the form of a board extending entirely across the front of the piano and secured at its ends to blocks 11 on the inner face of the piano case, the board 10 being'detachably held in place by screws 12, or other suitable means, and adjacent the blocks 11, and removed outwardly and downwardly therefrom, as better shown in Fig. 7, are brackets or temporary supports 13 secured one to each end wall of the piano case and adapted to receive the supporting board 10 edgewise, so as to hold it in an upright position. These supporting brackets 13 are U-shaped or tri-lateral, so as to accomplish the end just described, and leading upwardly from the inner branch of each of the brackets is a skid 1 lwhich. extends from the point where the supporting board 10 is situated when secured in place, to the blocks 11, so that as soon as the board is detached from the blocks, it may he slid down the skids let into its supporting brackets 13 without danger of being dropped against any of the delicate parts of the piano, and on the other hand, when it is desired to put it in place again, it may he slid up the skids into position against the blocks 11. The upper ends of the skids let is preferably recessed to form a shoulder 15 on each, so as to constitute with the face of the block 11 a seat for holding the board while the screws 12 are being placed. This board 10 preferably carries also a power pneumatic 16 by which the hammer rest rail 9 is controlled when the automatic playing attachment is being used, and to that end this power pneumatic has its movable member connected to the damper bar by means of a strap 17, or other suitable flexible connection, the end of the strap being provided with a button hole 18 engaging over the button 19 on the damper bar, so that, if desired, the strap may be detached from the damper bar when the support is removed from the blocks 11. This pneumatic 16 for actuating the damper bar is operated by manual means under the con trol of the operator, a thumb lever or piece 20 being secured in a position convenient to the hand of the operator on the front of the piano or instrument case and opera tively connected with the pneumatic by connections which automatically become connected and disconnected as the board 10 is attached and detached. To that end, the power pneumatic 16 is under the control of a primary pneumatic, whose valve housing or block is shown at 21, and which primary pneumatic serves to normally connect the power pneumatic 16 with the atmosphere through a passage 22, which communicates with the chamber 23 in the valve housing, the chamber 23 being in communication with the atmosphere through a valve seat 2 1- and a space between the back of the valve block 21 and the adjacent face of the pneumatic 16, and a valve 25 which controls the passage through valve seat 2% is arranged to alternately engage said seat and an opposite seat 26 when air is admitted. to a diaphragm chamber 27 through a flexible tube 28 or exhausted from said chamber through a bleed hole 29 permanently in communication by port 30 with an air passage 31 extending along the back of board 10 to air conduit 82, one end of the tube 28 being connected to a valve seat 33 engaged by valve 34 under the control of the operator through the intermediary of the thumb piece 20 and a connecting rod The details of the construction whereby the opening and closing of the valve 34ire sults in the collapse and expansion of the pneumatic 16 are not important, so far as the present invention is concerned, and any cont-rolling pneumatic within the housing 21 suitable for that purpose may be employed. In this particular example, how'- ever, the housing 21 in addition to the chamber 23 is provided with a chamber 36, which is divided off from the chamber 23 by the valve seat 26, and which cemmunicates with the air passage 81 through the port 30. The outer side of the chamber 86 is cons ituted by a flexible diaphragm 87 held in place by a plug 38, and which diaphragm is arranged to engage a head 39 on valve stem 4:0 for forcing valve 25 to its seat 2% when air is admitted to valve chamber 27. When vacuum exists on both sides of diaphragm 37 however, valve 25 will be held to its seat 26 by atmospheric pressure admitted through the seat 24. The plug 38 is shown as concaved on its inner face to make room for the vibration of the diaphragm which lies against such face when in its outward position, and in order that air through the tube 28 may be admitted, the plug 38 is formed with the aforesaid chamber 27, and this chamber is connected to a passage 41 leading through the bottom of the valve block 21 and communicating with a tube 42 (see Fig. 11) to which is connected one end of a exible tube or other suitable passage 43 leading to a port 44 formed in the back of the supporting board (see Fig. 9) and which port 44 registers with a port 45 in the block 11 at that end of the board when the board 10 is secured in position against the block. Extending downwardly from the port 45 in the block 11 is a passage 46, to the lower end of which is connected the upper end of the flexible tube 28. It will thus be seen that the mere act of securing the supporting board 10 in place reestablishes operative connection between the thumb piece and the power pneumatic 16. The bleed hole 29 is connected at one end with the port and at the other end with the passage 41, as better shown in Fig. 10, and this bleed hole is of course of considerably smaller diameter than the passage 41, so that while it will serve to exhaust the air from chamber 27, such exhaust cannot take place as rapidly as air may be admitted through the passage 41, and consequently, the vacuum in chamber 27 may be broken when valve 34 is open, notwithstanding that bleed hole 29 is in permanent communication with the pumper tube 32.

The end of the supporting board 10 opposite that bearing the mechanism just described, is provided with a port and connections for establishing communication with the pumper pipe 32 and the motor when the board is secured in place against the blocks 11. This end of the board is formed with an air passage 47 which communicates with the air passage 31 and with a port 48 leading to the motor, and also has at one end a port 49 arranged to register with port in the face of the block 11 when the board 10 is secured thereto, such port 40 being in communication through the block with the pumper pipe 32.

What I claim is:

In an apparatus for the purpose described, the combination of a musical instrument having a case, said musical instrument embodying. a hammer rest rail, a playing attachment for the musical instrument embodying a power pneumatic operatively connected with the hammer rest rail for controlling the same, a supporting board for said playing attachment and power pneumatic, a permanent support in the case for said supporting board, a valve seat having a port supported on the case independently of the supporting board, a valve for controlling said port, manually operated means for controlling said valve at will, a connection between said permanent support and said port terminating in a port in the face of the permanent support, said board having a port in its face for registration with the port in the support, a primary or controlling pneumatic for said power pneumatic mounted on said board, and a passage connecting the last said port with said primary pneumatic.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribin witnesses, on this 18th day of April A. 1910.

ROBERT J. BENNETT.

Witnesses:

M. W. CANTWELL, FRANCIS A. HOPKINS.

copies of this patent may be obtained to: five cents each, by lddreutn: the Commissioner of Patents. wellington, D. 0. 

